Sam Stern's bloghttp://blogs.forrester.com/sam_stern
enCX Pros Are Blind To The Line Of Visibilityhttp://blogs.forrester.com/sam_stern/15-03-13-cx_pros_are_blind_to_the_line_of_visibility?cm_mmc=RSS-_-MS-_-64-_-blog_6524
<div id="cke_pastebin">A few years back, FedEx learned that &quot;the leaning tower of packages&quot; at its retail locations was making many customers uneasy. Store employees would take a customer&#39;s package and place it on the messy pile. Based on that simple visual cue, these customers worried that their package might very well get lost in their seemingly haphazard shipping process. FedEx had run into a problem that plagues many companies, and that is the subject of my latest report, co-written with Tony Costa: <a href="https://www.forrester.com/CX+Pros+Are+Blind+To+The+Line+Of+Visibility/-/E-RES121064?docid=121064">CX Pros Are Blind to the Line of Visibility</a>.</div>
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<div id="cke_pastebin">Most companies don&#39;t understand all of the complex interdependencies that shape their customer experience outcomes. Forrester surveyed CX professionals last year and found that while nearly two-thirds of them use customer journey maps to understand their customer experience, only one in five maps the CX ecosystem. So most CX pros do not understand how employees, business processes, technology systems, partners, and the operating environment come together to enable their customer experience.</div>
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<div id="cke_pastebin">And to make matters worse, this lack of understanding blinds them to what elements in their experience are visible or invisible to customers as they interact with the brand. This lack of visibility can lead to problems such as companies unintentionally exposing undesirable ecosystem elements to customers, hiding elements that could add value, or corrupting the experience through counterproductive policies and processes.</div>
<div id="cke_pastebin"> </div><a href="http://blogs.forrester.com/sam_stern/15-03-13-cx_pros_are_blind_to_the_line_of_visibility" title="Read the rest of &#039;CX Pros Are Blind To The Line Of Visibility&#039;." class="node_read_more">Read more</a>http://blogs.forrester.com/sam_stern/15-03-13-cx_pros_are_blind_to_the_line_of_visibility#commentsCustomer ExperienceFri, 13 Mar 2015 16:24:51 +0000Sam Stern11513 at http://blogs.forrester.comVoice Of The Employee Can Cure Broken Customer Experiences, But You Need An Effective Program To Mine Ithttp://blogs.forrester.com/sam_stern/15-01-25-voice_of_the_employee_can_cure_broken_customer_experiences_but_you_need_an_effective_program_to_mine_it?cm_mmc=RSS-_-MS-_-64-_-blog_6524
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<div id="cke_pastebin">Last week, many of our customer experience (CX) analysts -- including me and my colleague <a href="https://www.forrester.com/Maxie-Schmidt--Subramanian">Maxie Schmidt</a> -- were glued to their computer screens, watching a presentation by a big bank. It had introduced a tool to capture and manage ideas from its employees on how to improve the customer experience. This presentation mattered to us because only 25% of CX professionals say their companies' CX programs actually improve customer experience. Those who fail lack insight into the <em><strong>root causes </strong></em>of poor CX. And those root causes lie in the customer experience <em><strong>ecosystem</strong></em>. So while many companies have programs in place to mine voice of the customer, customer feedback alone is insufficient to get at root causes of bad CX because it penetrates only the top layers of the ecosystem.</div>
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<div id="cke_pastebin">This is why companies need to add voice of the <em><strong>employee</strong></em>. Think of your colleagues throughout the organization as canaries in coal mines. They can warn of potential experience issues before customers notice them, alert you to processes, policies, and technology systems that prevent them from providing a good customer experience, help understand how product-related activities that are behind the scenes -- like pricing -- affect customers, and highlight how the workplace culture affects employees&#39; motivations and abilities to deliver the intended experience. Voice of your employees (VoE) is:</div>
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<div class="rteindent1" id="cke_pastebin"><em><strong>"Any feedback from employees or partners that pertains to their ability to deliver great customer experiences."</strong></em></div>
<div id="cke_pastebin"> </div><a href="http://blogs.forrester.com/sam_stern/15-01-25-voice_of_the_employee_can_cure_broken_customer_experiences_but_you_need_an_effective_program_to_mine_it" title="Read the rest of &#039;Voice Of The Employee Can Cure Broken Customer Experiences, But You Need An Effective Program To Mine It&#039;." class="node_read_more">Read more</a>http://blogs.forrester.com/sam_stern/15-01-25-voice_of_the_employee_can_cure_broken_customer_experiences_but_you_need_an_effective_program_to_mine_it#commentsCustomer ExperienceSun, 25 Jan 2015 20:31:42 +0000Sam Stern11377 at http://blogs.forrester.comThe Customer Experience Curriculumhttp://blogs.forrester.com/sam_stern/15-01-06-the_customer_experience_curriculum?cm_mmc=RSS-_-MS-_-64-_-blog_6524
<p>Companies with customer-obsessed cultures <span>--</span> think USAA or Southwest Airlines <span>--</span> differentiate themselves in their industries and earn major financial benefits as a result. But customer-obsessed cultures don&#39;t just happen: To help transform a culture, customer experience professionals must develop a training and coaching curriculum that touches all employees.</p>
<p>In my recent report, &quot;<a href="https://www.forrester.com/The+Customer+Experience+Curriculum/fulltext/-/E-RES113412">The Customer Experience Curriculum</a>,&quot; I write about how companies must identify the key constituencies in the organization, determine how they can best contribute to delivering the intended experience, and then design training and coaching that reinforce those contributions. CX professionals -- in partnership with their learning and development colleagues -- should:</p><a href="http://blogs.forrester.com/sam_stern/15-01-06-the_customer_experience_curriculum" title="Read the rest of &#039;The Customer Experience Curriculum&#039;." class="node_read_more">Read more</a>http://blogs.forrester.com/sam_stern/15-01-06-the_customer_experience_curriculum#commentsCustomer ExperienceTue, 06 Jan 2015 20:06:14 +0000Sam Stern11329 at http://blogs.forrester.comStandardize Great Customer Experience Deliveryhttp://blogs.forrester.com/sam_stern/14-09-30-standardize_great_customer_experience_delivery?cm_mmc=RSS-_-MS-_-64-_-blog_6524
<p>In my last report, &quot;<a href="https://www.forrester.com/Standardize+Great+Customer+Experience+Delivery/fulltext/-/E-RES113405">Standardize Great Customer Experience Delivery</a>,&quot; I look at how companies create, share, and assess customer experience (CX) standards. Done well, CX standards prevent avoidable customer experience mistakes, ensure consistent experience delivery, and set a high bar for customer experience quality.</p>
<p>But bad CX standards are worse than no standards at all.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, customer experience professionals can make current problems worse -- and even cause new problems -- when they create the wrong CX standards. Remember the infamous Comcast customer-service call from the summer? That was, in part, caused by a bad CX standard. Comcast created a standard for its call center reps that requires them to capture a specific reason why a customer is canceling his or her service before moving forward in their scripts. Back in July, a customer recorded his agonizing attempt to cancel without providing a reason and then posted it online -- where it was listened to by millions, creating a public relations nightmare.</p>
<p>But don't give up on CX standards. </p>
<p>To craft the right standards, CX professionals should identify which parts of the experience need standards, create effective standards that strike an appropriate balance, socialize and reinforce the standards with all employees, and measure the impact of standards on customer and business metrics to confirm that they work.</p><a href="http://blogs.forrester.com/sam_stern/14-09-30-standardize_great_customer_experience_delivery" title="Read the rest of &#039;Standardize Great Customer Experience Delivery&#039;." class="node_read_more">Read more</a>http://blogs.forrester.com/sam_stern/14-09-30-standardize_great_customer_experience_delivery#commentsCustomer ExperienceTue, 30 Sep 2014 19:11:59 +0000Sam Stern11047 at http://blogs.forrester.comFind Your Partner On The Path To Customer Obsession http://blogs.forrester.com/sam_stern/14-09-08-find_your_partner_on_the_path_to_customer_obsession?cm_mmc=RSS-_-MS-_-79-_-blog_6524
<p>Companies that were founded on customer obsession -- like Southwest Airlines, Vanguard, and USAA -- derive significant financial benefits as a result. That's because a customer-obsessed culture helps customer experience professionals deliver high-quality, on-brand, consistent experiences that drive loyalty. Fortunately, even companies that weren't founded on customer obsession can transform their cultures and see big returns on their efforts. For example:</p>
<ul>
<li>Tom Feeney, Safelite Autoglass's chief executive officer (CEO), launched the company's customer experience transformation in 2008. Since then, the firm has seen NPS, employee engagement, revenue, and profit metrics improve substantially.</li>
<li>Cleveland Clinic embarked on its patient experience transformation in 2009. Since then, it's seen significant improvements in patient experience ratings, employee engagement scores, and business and operations metrics like number of patients admitted and average wait time to see a doctor.</li>
</ul>
<p>Successful transformations require companies to execute on multiple steps over several years.</p>
<p>Along the way, companies often run into pitfalls that derail these types of efforts, like lack of a clear customer experience vision, failure to get broad-based buy-in across the organization, or loss of interest before the transformation is complete.</p>
<p>Fortunately, there are companies that can help. In my latest report for Forrester Research, &quot;<a href="http://www.forrester.com/Market+Overview+Where+To+Get+Help+With+Culture+Transformation/fulltext/-/E-RES113404">Market Overview: Where To Get Help With Culture Transformation</a>,&quot; I spoke with 14 consultancies about their most popular services. We learned that all of the companies:</p><a href="http://blogs.forrester.com/sam_stern/14-09-08-find_your_partner_on_the_path_to_customer_obsession" title="Read the rest of &#039;Find Your Partner On The Path To Customer Obsession &#039;." class="node_read_more">Read more</a><div class="categories"><h3>Categories:</h3><ul class="links"><li class="taxonomy_term_216 first"><a href="/category/customer_experience" rel="tag" alt="See other content with this tag." title="See other content with this tag.">Customer Experience</a></li>
<li class="taxonomy_term_11075"><a href="/category/customer_experience_ecosystem" rel="tag" alt="See other content with this tag." title="See other content with this tag.">customer experience ecosystem</a></li>
<li class="taxonomy_term_11759 last"><a href="/category/journey_mapping" rel="tag" alt="See other content with this tag." title="See other content with this tag.">journey mapping</a></li>
</ul></div>http://blogs.forrester.com/sam_stern/14-09-08-find_your_partner_on_the_path_to_customer_obsession#commentsConsumer Product StrategyCustomer Experiencecustomer experience ecosystemjourney mappingMon, 08 Sep 2014 20:21:36 +0000Sam Stern10989 at http://blogs.forrester.comHow PURE Insurance Built A Customer-Obsessed Businesshttp://blogs.forrester.com/sam_stern/14-07-23-how_pure_insurance_built_a_customer_obsessed_business?cm_mmc=RSS-_-MS-_-64-_-blog_6524
<p>My latest report, &quot;<a href="http://www.forrester.com/Case+Study+How+PURE+Insurance+Built+A+CustomerObsessed+Business/fulltext/-/E-RES116302">Case Study: How PURE Insurance Built A Customer-Obsessed Business</a>,&quot; is a case study of a company using its customer-obsessed business model to stand out in the insurance industry. Since its start in 2006, PURE has grown more than 40% each year and has one of the highest Net Promoter Scores in any industry.</p>
<p>Entering the crowded competitive insurance industry was no easy task. PURE knew it would need to stand out. That's why the founders decided to go with a member-owned business model (called a Reciprocal Exchange) that would help differentiate the insurer from other insurance companies owned by shareholders. For PURE, owners as members means alignment between business and customer goals. The company deepens and reinforces this commitment in several ways:</p><a href="http://blogs.forrester.com/sam_stern/14-07-23-how_pure_insurance_built_a_customer_obsessed_business" title="Read the rest of &#039;How PURE Insurance Built A Customer-Obsessed Business&#039;." class="node_read_more">Read more</a>http://blogs.forrester.com/sam_stern/14-07-23-how_pure_insurance_built_a_customer_obsessed_business#commentsCustomer ExperienceWed, 23 Jul 2014 17:53:48 +0000Sam Stern10850 at http://blogs.forrester.comHow Hampton Hotels Built And Sustains Its Customer-Obsessed Culturehttp://blogs.forrester.com/sam_stern/14-07-07-how_hampton_hotels_built_and_sustains_its_customer_obsessed_culture?cm_mmc=RSS-_-MS-_-64-_-blog_6524
<p>My latest report, &quot;<a href="http://www.forrester.com/Case+Study+How+Hampton+Hotels+Built+And+Sustains+Its+CustomerObsessed+Culture/fulltext/-/E-RES116301#endnote3">How Hampton Hotels Built And Sustains Its Customer-Obsessed Culture</a>,&quot; is a case study of the hotel chain. The brand has been on a nearly 10-year journey to differentiate its hotels from competitors on the basis of exceptional guest experiences. It all started back in 2004. As part of the brand&#39;s 20th-anniversary celebration, Hampton asked its hotel owners to make about 120 product upgrades ranging from curved shower curtain rods to easy-to-use alarm clocks. Within a year, competitors had copied all of the new features.</p>
<p>The next year, in response to the cutthroat competition in the hotel industry, Hampton embarked on a culture transformation intended to differentiate its hotels from competitors by delivering superior guest experiences. Along the way, the team at Hampton learned important lessons about how to create and sustain a customer-obsessed culture:</p><a href="http://blogs.forrester.com/sam_stern/14-07-07-how_hampton_hotels_built_and_sustains_its_customer_obsessed_culture" title="Read the rest of &#039;How Hampton Hotels Built And Sustains Its Customer-Obsessed Culture&#039;." class="node_read_more">Read more</a>http://blogs.forrester.com/sam_stern/14-07-07-how_hampton_hotels_built_and_sustains_its_customer_obsessed_culture#commentsCustomer ExperienceMon, 07 Jul 2014 19:33:34 +0000Sam Stern10804 at http://blogs.forrester.comThe Innovative Tool That’s Transforming Customer Experience Training http://blogs.forrester.com/sam_stern/14-07-07-the_innovative_tool_thats_transforming_customer_experience_training?cm_mmc=RSS-_-MS-_-64-_-blog_6524
<p>Companies want customer-obsessed cultures that will help them differentiate in the age of the customer. But transforming a culture can be a challenge: It requires all employees to understand who their customers are, how customers perceive their interactions with the company, and what roles employees need to play in delivering the overall experience. Enter learning maps, which are fast becoming the centerpiece of small-group interactive training sessions at many companies.</p>
<p>In my recent report, &quot;<a href="http://www.forrester.com/Executive+QA+Learning+Maps+Innovative+Tools+For+Customer+Experience+Training/fulltext/-/E-RES115912">Executive Q&amp;A: Learning Maps; Innovative Tools For Customer Experience Training</a>,&quot; I answered some of the common questions related to creating a learning maps to help companies decide if they should develop their own learning maps.</p>
<p><strong>What are learning maps?</strong></p>
<p>Learning maps are large-scale visualizations that use data, graphics, and illustrations to tell a story. The maps are training tools that abstract significant amounts of information into a format that facilitates conversations and understanding for diverse groups of employees.</p>
<p><strong>How are learning maps used to improve customer experience?</strong></p>
<p>Learning maps are typically used in small-group interactive training sessions to help employees understand the company&#39;s customer experience strategy and their role in delivering against that strategy.</p>
<p><strong>What are the common scenarios where learning maps add value?</strong></p>
<p>Some of the specific use cases for deploying learning maps include:</p>
<ul>
<li>Sharing a new customer experience strategy.</li>
<li>Changing a specific part of the customer experience.</li>
<li>Training managers.</li>
<li>Integrating employees from acquired companies.</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Who helps companies create learning maps?</strong></p><a href="http://blogs.forrester.com/sam_stern/14-07-07-the_innovative_tool_thats_transforming_customer_experience_training" title="Read the rest of &#039;The Innovative Tool That’s Transforming Customer Experience Training &#039;." class="node_read_more">Read more</a>http://blogs.forrester.com/sam_stern/14-07-07-the_innovative_tool_thats_transforming_customer_experience_training#commentsCustomer ExperienceMon, 07 Jul 2014 19:01:07 +0000Sam Stern10765 at http://blogs.forrester.comCustomer Experience Rooms: What Are They? Should Your Company Create One?http://blogs.forrester.com/sam_stern/14-06-13-customer_experience_rooms_what_are_they_should_your_company_create_one?cm_mmc=RSS-_-MS-_-64-_-blog_6524
<p>In the age of the customer, companies must transform their cultures from product-centric to customer-centric. But that is easier said than done. Customer centricity requires all employees to understand who their customers are, how customers perceive their interactions with the company, and the roles employees play in delivering the overall experience. Customer experience (CX) rooms -- immersive, interactive spaces that help employees better understand customers -- have emerged as a powerful new tool for bringing customers and their journeys to life for workforces. Done well, CX rooms inspire empathy and understanding among employees and help build customer-centric cultures.</p>
<p>In my recent report, &quot;<a href="http://www.forrester.com/Executive+QA+Customer+Experience+Rooms/fulltext/-/E-RES115911">Executive Q&amp;A: Customer Experience Rooms</a>,&quot; I answered some of the common questions related to creating a CX room to help companies decide if they should build their own CX room.</p>
<p><strong>Why do companies create CX rooms?</strong></p>
<p>Firms create CX rooms to help employees understand the current customer experience their company delivers and to better understand the intended experience the company wants to deliver. The CX room that Ingrid Lindberg, chief customer experience officer at Prime Therapeutics, created at a previous employer demonstrated how complicated it was for customers to know which of the company&#39;s many phone numbers they should call or which of the firm&#39;s many websites they should visit.</p>
<p><strong>How do CX rooms help improve customer centricity?</strong></p><a href="http://blogs.forrester.com/sam_stern/14-06-13-customer_experience_rooms_what_are_they_should_your_company_create_one" title="Read the rest of &#039;Customer Experience Rooms: What Are They? Should Your Company Create One?&#039;." class="node_read_more">Read more</a><div class="categories"><h3>Categories:</h3><ul class="links"><li class="taxonomy_term_10007 first"><a href="/category/b2b_customer_experience" rel="tag" alt="See other content with this tag." title="See other content with this tag.">B2B customer experience</a></li>
<li class="taxonomy_term_9670"><a href="/category/customer_centric_culture" rel="tag" alt="See other content with this tag." title="See other content with this tag.">customer-centric culture</a></li>
<li class="taxonomy_term_9614"><a href="/category/organizational_culture" rel="tag" alt="See other content with this tag." title="See other content with this tag.">organizational culture</a></li>
<li class="taxonomy_term_625 last"><a href="/category/training" rel="tag" alt="See other content with this tag." title="See other content with this tag.">training</a></li>
</ul></div>http://blogs.forrester.com/sam_stern/14-06-13-customer_experience_rooms_what_are_they_should_your_company_create_one#commentsB2B customer experienceCustomer Experiencecustomer-centric cultureorganizational culturetrainingFri, 13 Jun 2014 14:37:39 +0000Sam Stern10718 at http://blogs.forrester.com5 Steps To Create And Sustain Customer-Centric Culturehttp://blogs.forrester.com/sam_stern/14-04-17-5_steps_to_create_and_sustain_customer_centric_culture?cm_mmc=RSS-_-MS-_-64-_-blog_6524
<p>My latest report, <a href="http://www.forrester.com/Five+Steps+To+Create+And+Sustain+A+CustomerCentric+Culture/fulltext/-/E-RES113384">5 Steps To Create And Sustain Customer-Centric Culture</a>, is now live on Forrester.com. The report answers the question I hear most often from clients: What are the steps in the process to actually transform organizational culture to be customer-centric? We interviewed companies that have successfully completed this transformation, and companies that are in the midst of that process right now. We learned that there are five steps companies must take to create and sustain customer-centric culture:</p>
<p><strong>Step 1: Secure Executive Support (No, Really).</strong> We do not want to sugarcoat this step. Customer experience professionals who don&#39;t already have commitment from their executives need to either get it or give up their hopes of transforming their organization&#39;s culture. <em>Every</em> successful transformation we studied began with a customer experience epiphany by a CEO or COO. If that realization hasn't happened yet, CX pros can help create the spark of inspiration with executives. For example, Brad Smith, the Chief Customer Officer at Sage North America, established a program where executives sign up to spend time in the call center or join sales teams on customer visits. And he created a new leadership routine of bringing customer stories to their monthly meetings. His goal was to get senior leaders to see the importance of customer focus.</p><a href="http://blogs.forrester.com/sam_stern/14-04-17-5_steps_to_create_and_sustain_customer_centric_culture" title="Read the rest of &#039;5 Steps To Create And Sustain Customer-Centric Culture&#039;." class="node_read_more">Read more</a><div class="categories"><h3>Categories:</h3><ul class="links"><li class="taxonomy_term_12480 first"><a href="/category/cultural_transformation" rel="tag" alt="See other content with this tag." title="See other content with this tag.">cultural transformation</a></li>
<li class="taxonomy_term_9670 last"><a href="/category/customer_centric_culture" rel="tag" alt="See other content with this tag." title="See other content with this tag.">customer-centric culture</a></li>
</ul></div>http://blogs.forrester.com/sam_stern/14-04-17-5_steps_to_create_and_sustain_customer_centric_culture#commentsCustomer Experiencecultural transformationcustomer-centric cultureThu, 17 Apr 2014 21:08:29 +0000Sam Stern10536 at http://blogs.forrester.com